Hotel & Tours Group

Happy Air Travellers, Thailand's latest airline, will offer daily flights to Langkawi from two major southern Thai tourist destinations -- Phuket and Hat Yai -- beginning Oct 29.

Its sales and marketing manager, Patcharapol Sonthipan, said the Langkawi route would commerce three days after the airline launched its maiden flight between Phuket and Hat Yai.

He said the company would operate a Swedish-made 34-seater twin turboprop SAAB 340A aircraft during the initial period before adding another early next year.

"We picked Langkawi as we believe it's a good tourist destination. There are ample attractions there, such as beautiful beaches, golf courses, cable car, nature and its status as a duty-free island," he said.

Patcharapol said they were riding on the high tourist season beginning this month to launch the three routes and added that the airline had sought assistance from Tourism Malaysia's office in Phuket to promote the Langkawi destination.

While the Phuket-Hat Hai route, which takes seven hours by road, would largely cater for businessmen and professional groups, Patcharapol said the flights to Langkawi from the two Thai cities would target leisure travellers.

"It's promoting Langkawi as a 'shopping, leisure and entertaintment centre - all rolled into one," he said.

Happy Air Travellers will be the only airline flying into Langkawi from Thailand after Air Asia stopped its Bangkok-Langkawi route two years ago.

The one-way fare for Langkawi-Hat Yai and Langkawi-Phuket is expected to be around 2,100 baht and 3,500 baht respectively.

On its future plans, he said the airline, currently with three experienced pilots, planned to embark on the Phuket-Medan route and charter flights within the Andaman region.

bernama